Tuesday, November 13, 2012

This Thanksgiving, we’re assuming your turkey will be juicy;
your mashed potatoes lump-free; and your gravy, smooth as silk. You are a
regular visitor here, after all.

However, it’s probably not a bad idea to hedge
your bets and serve a pumpkin pie so tasty and texturally perfect that no
matter what goes wrong, everyone will leave with a smile on
their face, and a delicious memory in their heart.By the way, this is that pie.

After many years of experimentation, I’ve
finally perfected what I think is the ideal formula. As I mention in the video,
I’ve removed an egg white, and replaced it with some additional yolks. This
results in a pie that’s not only richer, but also much less likely to crack.

Of course, you still need to not to overcook it. An extra 5
minutes in the oven is kryptonite to even the most brilliant pumpkin pie
formulas. Use the knife test I demonstrated and you should be fine. Worst case,
there’s always the whipped cream. Ah, the whipped cream.

I remember my friend, and world-famous photographer, Andrew Scrivani telling me about a food stylist whose spoon work is so sexy and
enticing that she makes a good living just specializing in dollops. Well, I’d
like to take this opportunity to apologize for ruining her career.

Once the world sees the slow-mo magic that is the old,
“twist, three-thrusts, and a pull,” I’m assuming she’ll be out of business in
no time. That’s right, now anyone will be able to do magazine-quality dollops like
a boss (and by boss, I mean overpaid food stylist).

Anyway, ruined careers aside, this really is a fantastic,
and incredibly easy pumpkin pie recipe, and I sincerely hope you consider
adding it to your holiday menu this year. Enjoy!

78 comments:

Looks absolutely fabulous...but I was REALLY hoping...for all us Ex-pats that follow you religiously for "home" cooking...you were going to use fresh pumpkin. We can't get canned pumpkin unless you spend a ton to order it online. Sigh...I know fresh pumpkin has much more moisture than canned...any tips?

Sorry, but yes, the pure pumpkin puree in the can is far superior to homemade! Usually sweeter and denser. The only thing you can do is get really sweet sugar pumpkins and roast the chucks until they are caramelized and sort of dehydrated a bit, then puree.

I agree. Canned pumpkin is consistently good. Fresh is hit and miss at best. Is it as sweet as the one where you add sugar to the evaporated milk? I never used condensed before. I loves me some pumpkin pie!

I think you've convinced me to give this recipe a try! I like the idea of a more custard-like consistency. However, I do have a question. I have some friends who are severely lactose intolerant(actually allergic) and I wondered if there was anything I could use instead in place of sweetened condensed milk? Could I make my own sweetened condensed "milk" by reducing almond milk, sugar, and a little vanilla?

You've convinced me to try this recipe and break away from the one on the back of the can! I do have one question though. I have some friends who are lactose allergic and I was wondering if I could substitute something for the sweetened condensed milk? Do you think I could make my own sweetened condensed "milk" by reducing down almond milk, sugar, and a little vanilla extract? (I've made pie crust with almond milk before so the filling is the only thing I'm worried about making lactose free.)

You've convinced me to try this recipe and break away from the one on the back of the can! I do have one question though. I have some friends who are lactose allergic and I was wondering if I could substitute something for the sweetened condensed milk? Do you think I could make my own sweetened condensed "milk" by reducing down almond milk, sugar, and a little vanilla extract? (I've made pie crust with almond milk before so the filling is the only thing I'm worried about making lactose free.)

Surprised I didn't see cayenne in the recipe! Looks delicious, I will definitely be telling my grandmother not to bake her usual (crappy) frozen pies and just let me bake these instead. I might add a touch of cayenne on a trial run for a bit of subtle heat. Thanks Chef!

I love this recipe. I want to use it to make a sweet potato pie. But I'd like to use unsweetened coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed milk. Do you think the pie will bake the same if I add honey or maple syrup to sweeten it?

I've made this pie three times already and it was perfect every time. I'm in always in charge of dessert for thanksgiving. Although I'm usually pretty good at baking any other time, I always happen to mess it up for thanksgiving and my grandma is convinced that I'll never make it as a human being. This year I will prove her wrong!! Please say a pumpkin pie prayer for me.

Now the good news. WOW! Easily the best pumpkin pie I have ever tasted or made. And so very simple.

Just amazing. Selling some at the wife's church bazaar tomorrow to raise money for victims of hurricane Sandy. I am going to try a vanilla variation, too, for myself since for the first time it was both sweet and savory and I suspect vanilla bean would be an interesting addition. (sure it has been done before but its new to me)

Hi Chef John. I have all the ingredients ready to make this pie on Weds. No test run for me! Can you guide me on the oven instructions for cooking two pies at the same time? Thanks for the great recipe.

Hi Chef! I can't wait to try out this recipe, but I bought a 29-ounce can of pumpkin puree on accident, instead of a 15-oz one. How many cups is 15 ounces of pumpkin puree? Thanks.

And also, I only have one pie dish, and I was planning on baking two pies for Thanksgiving dinner... So do you think it's possible to turn out a pie from the pie dish (like a cake) and reuse the same tin? Or should I use one of those 8-inch marie callendar pie tins... AGH!

To help your fresh pumpkin get closer to the consistency of canned, bake it, scoop out the flesh, puree it, then let it drain in a colander for awhile. Then spread it on a baking sheet and bake for awhile so that it dries out some more. You might stir it occasionally. I'm not certain the exact temperature and time... just do it until the consistency looks more like what would come out of a can.

You'll still have the problem that it have as strong of a pumpkin flavor as canned, but it makes a decent pie. If you skip the extra steps it needs a lot more baking and your crust will probably get overdone.

Just made this wonderful pie! I haven't tasted it because I am taking it to Thanksgiving . . . but I'm sure it'll be just fine. For the record, this recipe made the perfect amount (volume) of pie filling. Chef John's pie dish looked deeper than mine, but I unrolled my store bought dough, crimped the edges and filled 'er up! 0.75 quart simple glass pie plate. The pie looks great - no cracks! The only extra thing I had was an aluminum pie ring to protect the crust from getting too crispy.

Chef John, I have been an avid follower of your blog and videos for almost 3 years now, and every recipe of your's I try always turns out wonderfully!

My husband is just learning how to cook on his own since he is in the military and is living in Florida and I am stuck finishing a clinical rotation in a North Dakota hospital for school. I was lucky enough to come visit for today and tomorrow and suggested this recipe for him to make and he nailed it! It was so simple and so delicious! Thank you so much for sharing your gift :)

Chef John, I have been an avid follower of you for about three years now, and every time I try one of your recipes, it always turns out fantastic!

My husband, however, is basically just learning how to cook on his own since we are separated (He lives in Florida as he is in the military, and I am stuck in North Dakota while I finish a clinical rotation at a hospital). I was lucky enough to be able to come visit him for today and tomorrow and suggested he make this recipe. He nailed it! It was so delicious and "creamy" and it was so nice to have some sort of familiarity today. Thanks again for sharing your gift!

Thank you for sharing! I received lots of compliments this year at dessert. I usually follow the Libby's recipe on the side of the can which fine. But this pie was leagues better!! Even my father-in-law loved it, and he doesn't like pumpkin pie. Thanks again, chef John. I'm saving this recipe.

I made this last week for thanksgiving dessert and even people who have been known to shy away and be averted from the flavors of pumpkin pie loved it! I am thoroughly amazed at how easy it was to make and cannot wait to make it again! Thanks Chef John! =) You are amazing. =)

I made this recipe subbing in fresh puree from an Australian Blue Squash. Sorry, John, gotta disagree that canned pumpkin is better than the fresh stuff. I suspect too many people are just buying the wrong kind of squash!

This was the first thing I made that was your recipe! I was subscribed to your outibe channel but I never made any until this pie! Just wanted to thank you for that! (BTW I'm only 15 and my mom cooks most of the time so that's why I didn't make anything until this last thanksgiving. That is my excuse!)

This was the first pie I ever made in my life and it totally knocked my socks off! I've been wanting to try the "easy apple pie" one and this is the first time I've seen the ingredient/measurement instructions because it's not on Allrecipes. Now that I have them I'm going to try it this week!

Hello Chef John,I plan on trying this recipe for our thanksgiving supper. Although a whole 14 oz can of condensed milk seems to be quite sweet. We are not so big on very sweet desserts. Can I substitute the condensed milk with brown sugar and whipping cream? If so How much should I use without changing the texture of the pie? Thanks so much.

Wow, this recipe is so tight! I am totally going to try it. I'm curious to see what the difference will be when using condensed milk and eggs. Not to mention, the Chinese Five spice...quite intruiguiing! As always, excellent video presentation!!

I was making pies just now, and remembered that last year I had made the absolute hands-down best pumpkin pies ever. I couldn't remember the thing that made them so good - but I did remember Chef John! So I came back and expect to again have the BEST pumpkin pies ever. Thank you so much!

Wow!!...I did a little changing myself!...used fresh pumpkin oven baked for 45 minutes before,,,then baked in oven with other ingredients as requested...after cooling spooned out pumpkin mixture and folded in melted marshmallow and whipped cream with melted chocolate lines on top let set for a few hours....OMG!!!...sooooo delicious!!...

Fresh pumpkin is wonderful in this. Use a young pie pumpkin to start with (the fresher off the vine the better), cut it into chunks (removing guts & seeds) and toss it with salt and mild tasting olive oil and roast it in a really hot oven (~450 degrees F)until it's toasted and fork tender. ~20 min in my toaster oven. Let cool until you can handle it. Peel off the skin and dump it in a blender and purée with a little liquid (water or milk). Scrape as much of the oil from the pan into the blender as you can--it's delicious too. When you have the right amount of purée,add everything else. You may need to adjust your salt a little, so if you fear to taste raw egg, taste the batter before the eggs go in. Then pulse the blender again until it's all smooth, and proceed exactly as Chef John says. The rest of the leftover roasted pumpkin chunks are delicious as is, or can be puréed into soup with some stock & cream after you clean the pie filling out of the blender.

Alternatively, cut a fresh pumpkin in half, scoop out the guts & seeds, and put the half pumpkin in a bowl in your microwave on the "baked potato" setting. Then cool, peel, purée, etc. It doesn't taste quite as good, but it works, if the pumpkin was good to begin with. I've never had a problem with watery-ness.

Hey there Chef! Made the pie minus the ground star anis and plus 1/2 tsp of salt by mistake and with a oven that would only go to 250degs. It turned out excellent even though I was nervous because of the lack of temperature control on my oven. Question, will freezing the pie for say 2-3 days affect the texture or flavour to much?

Also, mine tasted waaaaaaay much better after being in the fridge overnight.

ok so this is for people who dont have caned pumpkin puree, i live in australia so i had to do a bunch of searching before i found how to make puree right.

Get a butternut pumpkin! dont use the sugar pumpkins. the name dose not mean its sweet, quite often they are bland so they are no good for pie.

half a butternut pumpkin makes about 500ml of puree (yes we use metric here).

Have the oven at 180 degrees Celsius and place the pumpkin half flesh side down, keep the skin on but remove seeds bake until tender, let it cool and remove the skin then puree that shit with a stick mix or a blender. BOOM Pumpkin Puree!